Paddle
by marap
Summary: 'His right hand tangled in her wet hair, the water doing nothing to mask the softness he remembers.' Sam/Andy. Tag for episode 3x01.


_AN: Just a super quick ficlet I wrote after I watched the premiere today. It was great wasn't it? I think it was a really solid start to the season. Anyway, you know the drill, read and review! Thanks! x_

**Paddle**

His right hand tangled in her wet hair, the water doing nothing to mask the softness he remembers. _Had it really been three months? _He felt like he had just kissed her yesterday and realised, not for the first time, that if he could kiss her every day for the rest of his life, he'd die a happy man.

Her lips were soft, bare of gloss or colour. He could taste only her. He kissed her gently, reacquaniting himself with something that he had not forgotten in the first place. His left hand rest against her lower back, collecting the warmth of her skin through her thin tank top.

As their kisses remain slow but show no sign of stopping, he lowered her down onto her back, his lips never leaving hers. Her head sunk into the striped fabric of a cushion, her back following closely behind, falling onto the sofa with Sam's hand beneath it.

'Ow.'

Sam pulled back as soon as the word leaves her lips, concern furrowing his brow. He looked down at Andy and saw confusion on her face. He leant back quickly, letting her sit up. She leant on her left arm and reached behind her with her right hand, her turned face revealing the tanned skin of her neck. His lips hadn't even had a chance to explore it yet.

Her randomly purchased paddle lay neatly across the couch where she'd placed it, ignored by both of them until it had made its presence known by digging into Andy's shoulderblades.

'Oh,' Sam said, his concerned expression swinging to one of amusement. 'Sorry,' he said anyway.

'Reminds me of making out in the car in high school,' Andy said with a scoff. 'Seatbelts and gearsticks digging into your back.'

Andy moved the paddle to lean against the end of the coffee table. Sam expected one of them will no doubt trip over it at some point, but at that moment, he didn't particularly care. His head was too busy making images to match the memory she had just spoken of.

'Ohh,' Sam drew out the word as if in great realisation, eyebrows raised and his mouth falling open. 'Wouldn't have picked you for one of those girls.'

Andy's head tilted to one side as her big brown eyes looked up at him from under heavy lids, challenging him. 'One of _which_ girls?' Her expression told him to choose his words carefully.

'You know,' he shrugged. 'One of the girls who'd make out in cars.'

She rolled her eyes.

'Yeah well, I didn't exactly know what I was doing,' she admitted with a little shake of the head. _Damn cute._

Sam pictured a teenage McNally, hair in a messy braid as she kisses some acne faced boy in the front seat of his junk heap of a car. He expects she's downplaying her teenage skills in the art of kissing. If he were to track down said boy (or boys, perhaps, though he doubted it) he was sure he (or they) would agree.

He was about to express this belief when Andy flopped back onto the sofa - now minus a decorative paddle - and spoke again. _What a shock. _He couldn't help but smile and wonder how long he really could have kept up his cold shoulder act of earlier in the day. Considering where he was right now, he pretty much already had his answer.

Not long at all.

'Besides,' Andy began. 'It's not like you never got some pimple faced junior into the back seat of your truck.'

He grinned. They'd both pictured each other's kissing partner as being one of the unlucky acne-faced teens.

'Who says I even _had_ a truck in high school?' he said, sinking down closer to her, his nose brushing hers as his lips hover above her own.

'Well did you?' she asked, eyes wide open, just as his lips were about to meet hers.

He sighed and it sounded fake even to his own ears. He pushed up on his arms, increasing the distance between them. Just a little.

'I had a bike,' he said.

'Well, lucky I didn't know you then,' she said. 'My Dad never would've let me go on some guy's motorbike.'

He paused, debating whether or not he should offer clarification. _Hell, may as well_, he decided.

'A _bicycle_, McNally,' he admitted, lowering himself back down and pressing a kiss to her mouth as if to delay the inevitable reaction.

He felt her lip parts under his. But not in the good way. She was laughing.

Sam was too happy at the sound of her laughter to even pretend to care that it was directed at _him_. Furthermore, it's not like this reaction is exactly a surprise. Being that he hasn't ridden a bike since high school, he has a hard time picturing it himself, despite the fact that he had lived it.

'I'm sorry,' Andy said as a hand came up to her lips as if to try and disguise the giggles still escaping.

'Laugh it up, McNally. At least I wasn't the one carrying a random _paddle_ around the airport.'

'Actually, you kinda were,' she said with a raised eyebrow.

_Damn. _He briefly considered joking that she should not expect any old school chivalry from now on, after that comment. No more carrying her stuff or opening the door for her. But who would he be kidding?

So he just shook his head and kissed her, stealing the last of her laughter but knowing that it would not be another three months before he heard it again.

_And thank God for that._


End file.
